ESA Conducts Longer Hot-Fire of Rocket Engine Demonstrator
TLPD Engine Aces Second Round of Tests in Poland
A second run of hot fire tests has been conducted on the Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator (TLPD) engine ... a Łukasiewicz Research Network Institute of Aviation rocket engine demonstrator that will be ideal for use as part of upper stages on small rockets. Potential applications for the TLPD engine include spacecraft, kick-stages or exploration missions.
The engine can vary its thrust down to 10% and up to 110% of its ideal operating conditions, making it a good candidate for use on landing on other planets. It is restartable and runs on non-toxic easily-storable propellants.
The first test-firing phase last year proved the engine’s operations at different thrust levels in steady states, but kept the engine running at set power levels from startup to the end of each firing. This second phase of the test campaign had the engine firing up and running at varying thrusts for up to a minute at a time – over seven times longer than in the first tests.
To achieve this, a new combustion chamber was designed and made with additive manufacturing techniques that added water-cooling to allow longer tests while also varying the thrust. It is one thing to keep a rocket engine running at different levels of power, but an extra difficulty to throttle between the different levels. During the throttling the engine runs in so-called transient phases that are by definition dynamic and thus hard to predict or control. The complete engine design worked perfectly with very stable combustion for all engine operating points tested over the 14 hot-fire runs.
The success of the Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator so far has earned the project to be continued. Over the next two years, and with a budget of €5 million (≈$5.26 million), the demonstrator will be upgraded to a flight-like engine adapted specifically for European space transportation needs. The new engine demonstrator will include technical improvements and optimisations and be designed so it could be integrated into a lander for another planet or moon or for inclusion on tugs and operational spacecraft to remove space debris or refuelling orbital depots.
The project is part of ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Program (FLPP) with prime contractor ‘Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Aviation’ (Lukasiewicz-ILOT) based in Poland and partners Astronika and Jakusz SpaceTech. A Łukasiewicz spin-off company, Thaliana Space, will join the project in this second phase, working with potential customers to integrate their needs into the engine design.